For the first time, the Bel Paese is equipped with a regulatory space dedicated to digital experimentation in the financial sector. 07/19/2021 | Marcella Persola https://www.advisoronline.it/normative-e-fisco/banca-d-italia/61191-italia-digitale-al-via-il-comitato-fintech.action
The FinTech Committee and the regulatory sandbox for the digitization of the country's financial services are launched. The initiative, as evidenced by a press release from Consob, is a consequence of the provisions of the law of 28 June 2019 no. 58 of conversion of the decree law 30 April 2019, n. 34, the so-called "Growth Decree", which saw the cooperation of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Bank of Italy, Consob and IVASS.
The project is part of a framework of dialogue between institutions and operators in the sector, facilitated by the work of the Coordination Committee for FinTech, established in 2018 at the Treasury Department and formalized with the Growth Decree as an institutional space for discussion, coordination, proposal and sharing of experiences and best practices between authorities and competent institutions in the FinTech field.
The initiative represents an important step forward for the digitization of the country. For the first time, in fact, Italy is equipping itself with a regulatory sandbox, a protected space dedicated to digital experimentation in the banking, financial and insurance sectors. This experimentation will allow FinTech operators to test innovative solutions, being able to benefit from a simplified transitional regime and in constant dialogue with the supervisory authorities: Bank of Italy, Consob, IVASS.
At the same time, the authorities responsible for regulation will be able to observe the dynamics of technological development and identify the most appropriate and effective regulatory interventions to facilitate the development of FinTech, already containing the spread of potential risks. To access the trial, operators must submit projects relating to innovative services, products or processes in the banking, financial or insurance sector and which bring benefits to end users or contribute to market efficiency to the supervisory authority competent for the matter. The projects must be in a sufficiently advanced state for experimentation and sustainable from an economic and financial point of view. The supervisory authorities, on the other hand, will provide indications aimed at specifying the criteria for admission to the trial established by the decree. With regard to the time of submission of applications for access to the trial in 2021, the supervisory authorities, by September, will determine the time window for sending requests for admission to the sandbox. Once the preliminary phase of the applications has been completed, the official register of operators admitted to the trial will be published on the website of the Treasury Department.